I am an emergency physician on staff at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where I have practiced for the past 10 years. I also serve as an adviser to Medscape Emergency Medicine, an educational portal for physicians, and an affiliate of WebMD. My other time is spent with my private house call practice called DR 911, providing medical care to both travelers and residents in Manhattan. I have a keen interest in medical technology and public health education.

Texting While Parenting: What Effect Can It Have On Your Children?

Many parents don’t think twice about using their smartphones while they are home with their children, or at a park, restaurant or sporting event. Whether they are texting, tweeting or e-mailing, the potentially negative effects that this activity may have on language development, social interaction and emotional bonding of their children have been raised by social psychologists in the past decade. Even more concerning now is the potential for physical injury to young children as a result of parental distraction described in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

The issue is whether these high tech devices can reduce the ability of adults to safely and effectively supervise toddlers and young children. It turns out that emergency departments have being seeing an increased number of injuries noted in young children. It is possible that the increasing use of such technology may be partly responsible for the recent uptick in traumatic injuries noted in toddlers and children, which had previously been consistently declining over the past decade. Near drownings and deaths have occurred in swimming pools and also with children wandering into traffic or falling off playground ladders and other gymnastic equipment.

There are no formal studies or other published data at this time to firmly establish any relationship between distraction by digital devices and the recent increase noted in nonfatal injuries under the age of five based on data from the CDC from 2007-2010. However, the number of smartphones owned by people aged 13 and older went from 9 million in 2007 to over 63 million in 2010, then up to 114 million in 2012. At this time, it can only represent an association, but may not be the only cause attributable to the increased injury rates observed.

What we do know is that using a smart phone while driving or walking does increase the risk for injury. It is certainly possible that the devices may be contributing to the increase observed in toddlers and young children as more parents juggle and multitask throughout their busy days. Other potential explanations offered for the increase in rates of childhood injury may include children engaging in more dangerous or riskier activities, or parents with a heightened awareness to bring children to the emergency department. In addition, parents do not generally self report that they were distracted when a child presents to the emergency department for care, thus leading to under reporting and inaccurate data.

The issue of whether parents’ involvement with distracting technology can affect their social and emotional connections to their children has been explored by well known social psychologists such as Dr. Sherry Turkle from M.I.T. over the past decade. No definitive conclusions can be drawn at this time, but there is a rationale for heightened concern. Dr. Turkle has previously stated that children often feel hurt and may be reluctant to discuss it when their parents are preoccupied with smart phone technology. Specific situations where this was the case include sporting events, at meals, and at after school or extracurricular activities.

Emotional connectivity and language development are two areas where most psychologists have expressed concern. It is certainly possible that excessive use of smart phones and social media can negatively affect the social bond a parent has with their child. Although every child has different emotional needs, the distractive effect of such devices may lead some children to feel neglected and lose emotional connections to their parents. This may lead to emotional outbursts and social isolation– potentially manifesting as depression or anxiety.

As we raise future generations, the technology that we embrace to communicate and transmit data has the potential to effect our children, not only emotionally or socially, but also physically and place them in danger when not properly supervised–certainly something to consider as a parent of a young child the next time you send or receive a text message.

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Thank you so much for your comments and insight, Dr. Schwarz. I completely agree that use of digital devices will further increase distraction and danger for children of mutitasking parents. Thank you for sending your website.

Kids always want your attention. If you’re on a landline they are tugging on your pants. You just have to teach them wait and not interrupt. Little has changed other than we communicate in a more mobile fashion. I would argue that parents are more watchful now. When I was a kid, parents just sent the the kids to the park and told them to come back upstairs when they are done playing. Today parents stand around like hawks making sure the kids get not a scratch. So today’s parents stop for a moment to text? Not a big deal. As always discretion is necessary. If your child can’t swim you don’t put him/her in a pool and look away. And if you have to be told to be careful when texting and walking, well…. that is just silly.